Gentlemen,

Well a very disappointing loss this weekend. Most disappointing of all was our performance. There are some key lessons we need to take from this weekend. We need to learn from this game and make sure we don't repeat them. I think one word sums up this weekends game: DISCIPLINE.Our lack of discipline on Saturday killed us. There are some key areas where we greatly need to improve our discipline:TACKLE/RUCK BALL: We are making the same mistakes at the breakdown. We gave away far too many penalties here. Our biggest is not releasing the tackled player. Our repeated infringements resulted in 2 sin binnings. This is an area we have to improve on.COMMUNICATION: We still aren't communicating to each other when the ball is in play. We must get in the habit of talking to each other. Let the ball carrier know wher you are. Let him know he has a defender breathing down his neck. Call for the ball in the air. Etc.CHAT: Our chat on the field at each other and too the ref has got to stop. We have to be one of the lippiest teams in the South. It gets the referee's back up when people are calling out for "Forward pass", "hands in the ruck", "offside" etc. We need to focus on playing to the whistle out there rather than trying to referee the game. Our continuous yap to the ref just gets him focusing more on us than the opposition. Let him ref the game. We also have got to cut out the b*tching amongst ourselves. We ended up being at each others throats Saturday. And that is the sure sign that you have a team beat. The only people who need to be talking out there are the captain and the vice-captain. Saturday was agreat example of all the b*tching that goes on in touch coming through to the game.FIRE: We didn't seem to have the fire in our bellies Saturday at all. It's essential that everybody get themselves mentally straight before the game. We played the whole game flat Saturday and could never get our rhythm going to play our game plan.

Saturday was a great example of playing the way we have been practicing. So let's focus on this weekends game as some redemption from this past weekend. Let's take the lessons learned from this Saturday's game and make sure we don't repeat those mistakes. We have Columbia this weekend. We need 2 good practices this week. Let's practice hard. Work on eliminating the chat and build towards this weekends game against Columbia.

See everybody tomorrow night at 7:00pm ready to go. Let's not forget how it felt at the final whistle Saturday. Let's not have that feeling again.

Dan Roberts
Coach Greenville RFC


Greenville Grffins Rugby Club